Burnley banker David Fishwick takes on payday loan firms

PAYDAY loan companies will face the wrath of banking revolutionary David Fishwick in a one-off prime-time TV show tonight.

The minibus retailer first hit screens with Bank of Dave, which followed his low-interest ‘bank’ Burnley Savings and Loans Limited.

Now he has teamed up with the same production team to tackle the ‘spiral of debt’ he claims is encouraged by payday lenders.

Mr Fishwick said the companies were ‘terrified’ of him when confronted about issues such as annual percentage rates (APR) on loans and rollover payments.

He said: “I had people coming to me from Burnley and across Lancashire saying: ‘I’m stuck in a spiral of debt, please help me’.

“I’ve spoken to some very important people in government about payday loans but there’s no point telling just them about the problem – they know it exists.

"I needed to find the solution. So I went to meet the people affected and lent out £25,000 in a pilot scheme. We gave them time to pay it back, with a sensible APR and tried to inject some trust into the system.”

The hour-long special - Dave: Loan Ranger – was filmed over six months and saw Mr Fishwick meet with several MPs and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office.

But it was when he came face-to-face with the payday loan companies themselves that made for the most interesting scenes. Mr Fishwick said: “They told their employees not to talk to me, but I had a whistleblower.

“I was physically thrown out of one. It’s a very powerful, hard-hitting programme and it really makes a difference.

“I think we’re really influential in terms of getting changes in the law regarding capping APR.”

The show, by Finestripe Productions, will be aired on Channel 4 at 10pm.

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